The Year in Ideas: The NHL rediscovers Canada

The return of the Winnipeg Jets and the NHL's rediscovery of Canada

Gary Bettman is an American and, as an American, he long enjoyed the unusual distinction of arguably being the most-hated man in Canada. Mr. Bettman was our Dr. Evil, a Little Napoleon with a little man’s stature and a Machiavellian hold over hockey in his role as NHL commissioner.

Our animus toward Mr. Bettman traces its origins to the mid-’90s when the Canadian dollar was worth pennies and the Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques left the country while the Little Napoleon chased his dream of world, or at least U.S. sports market, domination by planting the frozen sport like a row of palm trees in hockey deserts (Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia and Texas) throughout the South.

We despised him for it. We swore we would never forgive, and we knew, in our hearts, that it would never work.

Ever after, Canadian fans would boo the sight of Mr. Bettman when he appeared at a game, wearing his smarter-than-all-you-hoser-schmucks-smirk, and projecting his lordship over a sport that historically, emotionally and spiritually belonged to us.

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Such was hockey life, as we Canadians knew it, for five thousand, five hundred and nine long days. Or: the number of days between the Winnipeg Jets departure from Winnipeg and the NHL’s return to Manitoba, by way of Atlanta, on May 31, 2011, when the most-hated man in Canada made the official announcement that the Jets were heading home.

“The opportunity to come back here, to bring a franchise back to Canada, which we know is the heart and soul of the game, is vitally important,” Mr. Bettman said.

“It is clear that times have changed.”

Or else the NHL and Gary Bettman had changed and realized something we knew all along: Canadians are nuts about hockey.

We like it so much that the province of Quebec is prepared to pour buckets of government dough into building Quebec City a new rink to repatriate Les Nordiques.

We like it so much that our Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, is writing a never-quite-finished-book about hockey (now promised next year!) and floated a non-conservative trial balloon last January — that subsequently popped — about funding arena construction across the land using federal monies.

Our passions flared in other ways. Vancouverites turned into Visigoths and trashed their own town after losing the Stanley Cup to Boston. Sidney Crosby’s rattled brain became a chief talking point around water coolers from Penticton to P.E.I. — for months on end — that haven’t ended yet.

Winnipeg, then, was but one aspect of a greater NHL awakening, of our game getting back to its roots.

Quebec City could be next in line for an NHL team. Deep-pocketed financiers are hoping to build a sparkling new rink in Markham, Ont., in the backyard of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Hamilton is forever standing by. Even Regina/Saskatoon is feeling moderately hopeful.

On a Sunday afternoon in early October, just hours before the Jets hosted the Montreal Canadiens at the MTS Centre in their historic, season-opening game, Mr. Bettman appeared on the scene.

Fans were already filing into the rink, filling the seats, filtering past where the commissioner sat doing a radio interview.

Instead of boos, a novel chant was heard: “Gary! Gary! Gary!”

Mr. Bettman smiled, cracked that he thought they must be cheering for someone else named Gary. Much later, he slipped from the building, taking two souvenir Winnipeg Jets sweaters with him for his grandchildren.

The message was clear. The NHL ice is tilting to the North. Dr. Evil is finally on our side.